THE bells won't be ringing out from one Cleckheaton church this Christmas.

The tower at Whitechapel church is to be taken down and the bells removed in an emergency operation.

Architects and structural engineers examining the site discovered serious defects in the upper part of the tower.

They were looking at the tower as part of a restoration project.

Churchwarden Tom Pinder admitted it was a setback.

He added: "Work on the tower will now involve significant additional costs to the original estimate.

"However, English Heritage has authorised £10,000 of emergency funding so that the tower can be carefully dismantled to the cill and capped and the stones recorded for re-building.

"The carillon of bells will have to be removed but the work will not affect any of the services at Whitechapel."

The English Lottery Fund, administered by English Heritage, awarded the church a £12,000 grant to determine the extent of the repairs needed to the Grade Two listed building and offered a further £75,000 towards work estimated at £116,000 in total.

The church has now raised half of the £29,000 needed.

More money is needed to rebuild and strengthen the tower and a further application has been made to English Heritage which should be determined by March next year.